Process of and apparatus for forming balls



Aug. Z6 1924.

F. E. MARCY PROCESS 0F AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS 3 Sheets-Sheet lFiled March 28, 1922 Aug. 26. 1924. 1,505,964

F. E. MARCY I PROCESS 0F AND APPARATUS FORk FORMING BALLS Filed March 2B1922 3 Sheets-Shed?. '3

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Patented ug. 26, 1924.

UNITED STATES FRANK EARL MARCY, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS.

Application filed March 28, 1922.

To @ZZ 'zc/wm t may concern.' Y

.Be it known that I, FRANK EARL Manor?, a citizen of the UnitedStates,.residing at Los Angeles, in the county Of Los Angeles and Stateof California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inProcesses of and Apparatus for Forming Balls, of which the following isa specification.

This invention relates to a process of and apparatus for forming ballsor other objects of rotation from rods or bars or whatever material itis desired to make such bodies.

Vhile the invention is not limited to the formation of a particularclass of balls, it is primarily intended for the formation of steel oriron balls adapted for use in Crusher mills. It is desirable that suchballs shall not be only made of very hard steel but that the mass of themetal constituting the finished ball shall have a high and uniformdensity.

It is the principal object of the invention to provide a process of andapparatus for rapidly and cheaply making balls having a high and uniformdensity.

For a full understanding of the invention reference is made to theaccompanying drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of anapparatus for carrying out the object of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view thereof; l

Figs. 3-9 are more or less diagrammatic plan views of die members havingdifferent forms of grooves suitable for the purpose Of the invention.

Fig. 10 shows a plurality of fragmentary sectional views on lines ara,-b, c-c, cZ--d and e-e, in Fig. 8;

Fig. 11 shows two sectional views on lines f--f and g-g Fig. 9;

Fig. 12 is a side elevation of one of the dies shown in Fig. 9;

Fig. 13 is a plan view of another form of die;

Figs. 11i and 15 are more or less diagrammatic plan views of differentmodifications; and

Figs. 16 and 17 are elevation and end view respectively of anarrangement in which the dies have a different relative position.

Having reference to Fig. 1, 10 is a stationary die element mounted onsupports 11, and 12 is another die element mounted for sliding movementin a frame r13. "The die element 12 may be reciprocated by any SerialNo. 547,501.

suitable means for instance a hydraulic piston, as shown.

As is clearly indicated in Fig. 1 and Fig. 12, the surfaces of the endsof the dies 10 and 12 directed 4toward each other are tapered and theremaining surfaces of the two die elements lie in the same plane.

In the upper surface of the stationary die 10 and in the lower surfaceof the movable die 12 are formed grooves which cooperate with each otherto cut bars into sections and shape the balls or other bodies ofrotation.

The principal feature of novelty is the form and disposition of thesegrooves and their relation to each other.

For the sake Of simplicity only one groove is indicated on each of thedie members 15 and 16 in Fig. 3. rlhe grooves 17 and 18 are directed atthe same angle relatively to the direction of movement of the die 15 andare symmetrically disposed in relation to the longitudinal center lineof the dies. The line bisecting the angle defined by the grooves extendsat right angle to the direction of movement.

At the beginning of the forward mcvement of the die 15 the abutting endsof grooves 17 and 18 come into register with each other while theopposite ends are in register when at the end of the` forward stroke thedie 15 passes out of Contact with the die 16. ln all relative positionsof the dies 15 and 16 in overlapping relation the two grooves intersecteach other, a middle position being indicated in F ig, 1.

As indicated more particularly in connect-ion with Figs. 8 and 9, thecross-sectional form of the grooves varies from end to end. lVhile thereis some latitude in the forn'iation of the grooves, all of them havesubstantially the same characteristics. The cross-sectional forms shownin Figs. 10 and 11 may therefore 'be considered as typical of allgrooves,

A bar 20 shown in Fig. 1 is placed on the front end of the stationarydie 16. As the movable die 15 moves forwardly, the bar is rolledforwardly between. the surfaces of the dies and is progressively pressedinto the grooves due to the cam action of the tapers of the dies. Thespace between the tapering surfaces gradually decreases until the levelsurfaces come into contact with each other and remain in contact to theend of the stroke.

The grooves are defined by sharp cutting edges 21 which gradually cutthe rod into sections as the rolling proceeds. Vhen the level surfacesof the dies come in contact with each other the cutting operation iscompleted and the severed sections are completely contained in thecio-acting grooves.

Considering a single groove on each die, as shown in Fig. 1, andassuming that a block of metal of the Width of the groove is placed inposition over the groove, it is obvious that this block will be confinedbetween the co-acting grooves and roll forwardly under the Wedgepressure both along groove 18 and groove 17. lts position Wit-h respectto the grooves is deiined by the intersection of the grooves. It isevidentthat its movement is the result of tivo rolling or rotarymotions, one duc to the movement oit the die 15 and one due to theshitting of the point of intersection of the tivo grooves in a directionat an'angle to the direction ot movement ot the c ie 15.

This composite rolling movement of the block about different axes oi'rotation has the same effect as a swaging operation. The metal is forredat each instant to substantially lill the space deiined by theint-ersection of the grooves and the forces acting upon it operate toeffectively condense it. By the time the body oit metal thus treateddrops out of the grooves it has passed through all the different stagesoftormation prescribed by the varying' form of the grooves and assumesits iinal shape according to the shape of the ends of the groove Wherethey pass out of co-action.

While for the salie of facilitating the understanding of the Jrormingprocess reference has been made to a single block or body ot metal` thesame principle of operation applies necessarily to a plurality ofadjacent grooves in their eitect upon a rod ei;- tending)` across thegrooves.

Having again reference to Figs. 10 and 12, it should 'be noted that thegrooves are iirst relatively flat as indicated by the section (cmo.Section b-) is deeper and section c-c still deeper. In tact the depthoi' the grooves at section c-c is deeper than the radiusof the ball inits tinished form. rThis is ot special importance inasmuch as it allowsan excess of metal to be pressed into the bottom which it is easier topress back to form a semisphere than it is to form a semisphere byforcing the metal into a groove oi circular cross-section in the lirstinstance.. At the same time this feature serves the purpose to bringabout the desired condensation of the metal as previously referred to,After the cross-section c-c the form of the grooves gradually assumesthe circula-r cross-section or other desired form.

As indicated in Fig 10, the angular groove indicated by the section c-cchange to a groove curvilinear in cross section and ot' a depth greaterthan the radius et the linished ball but ,of smaller Width.. While theWidth `between the edges 21 of the grooves in cross-section o o, tmb.and

y c-c represents 1, the Width of the groove at the cross-section e-c is3/4. The body of revolution produced thereby is a flat oval about 1% indiameter. ln Fig. 11, on the other side, the cross-sectional form afterthe cross-section c-c gradually approaches a semi-circle which isreached at the crosssection g-g.

ln the foregoing has been given a statement ot' the broad principle offorming balls or ther bodies of revolution by a composite rollingmovement about two axes. The disposition and relation of the grooves 17and 18 are advantageously modified to better suit actual conditions.

Fig. 5 shows tivo grooves 19 and 19 respectively diverging from eachother from one end to the other. This form is otherwise similar to theform suggested in Fig. 1.

In the form shown in Fig. 6 the rst part 24 of the grooves is straightWhile the remaining part 25 is curved- This allows the bar to be outthrough to a greater extent before the composite movement starts.

The form shown in Fig. 7 has a straight portion 26 at one end and astraight portion 27 at the other end between which there are curvedportions 28.

The terms shown in Figs. 8 and 9 have a relatively long straight portion29 and 30 respectively and shorter deected end portions 31 and 32respectively. s

The different forms of grooves referred to merely represent several of alarge number of forms adapted for carrying out 'the oh* ject of theinvention.

The relative movement ot the tivo dies need not be linear. is indicatedin Fig. 13, the path ot movement may be circular. The dies 33 and 34 aremounted for relative motion about an axis 35 as center. Either one maybe held stationary and the other moved. ln analogy to the formspreviously described, the grooves do not lie in circles having the axisas center. ln the particular embodiment shown a portion 36 of thegrooves is circular With the axis 35 as center While the portion 37 iseccentric. The grooves on iboth dies are of coursesu'bstantiallysymmetrical as previously described. In this particular instance part ofthe movement ot' the metal through the circular portion of the groovesis uniformly circular While through the eccentric portion there is acomposite movement7 one component being circular While the other isradial. The mode or operation and the specific co-action between thegrooves of the tivo dies is essentially the same. The disposition of thegrooves could obviously be varied within the same scope as the groovesin the first construction are varied.

The rods are preferably heated to a forging temperature before they areoperated upon and the dies may be exposed to a source of heat to preventrapid cooling of the heated rods. The llames in Fig. 1 are of courrseconventional representations of all forms of heating apparatus availablefor this purpose.

l/Vhile the method above described constitutes what may lbe called thepreferred mode of carrying out the invention, the objects of theinvention may be carried out in different ways.

In Fig. 14, 40 .represents the movable dio and 41 the stationary die,the relation being substantiallyv the same as indicated in F 1 and 2.The grooves 42 in the lower surface of die 40 are parallel to thedirection of motion. The grooves 43 in the upper surface of thestationary die 41 consist of a portion 48a in alignment with the grooves42 and a portion 43b parallel to the direction of motion but offset.slightly to one side relatively to the portion 43a. This asymmetricarrangement oauses the body of' metal to turn about two axes and hassubstantially the same effect as the arrangements previ ously described.The bodies of metal are out off from bars and partly formed in theportion 43a and are then finished in the portion 43". The offset may ofcourse vary within certain limits and may be greater in grooves oflarger cross-section than in grooves of smaller cross-section. Inpractice 51g to fg constitutes the average operating range for balls ofthe size contemplated.

Rotation about two axes may also be brought about by an angular relationof the dies. As shown in Fig. 15, the position of' the stationary die 44may be angularly adjusted by means of set screws 45.. Assuming that thegrooves in the two dies are identical in every respect and parallel tothe longitudinal aXis of the dies, 'the position of the grooves 48 inthe stationary die 44 may be angularly shifted by adjustment of the setscrews so that at the inner or abut ting end the grooves 48 are inregister with the grooves 49 of the movable die but are offset at thefinishing end gli to lg In the apparatus shown in Figs. 16 and 17, theposition of the movable die may be adjusted relatively to the stationarydie. The frame 50 carries the stationary upper die 51 while the movablelower die 52 is guided in adjustable guides 53. The adjustment of theguides 5,3 may be effected by means of set screws 54 extending throughthe side walls of the frame 50 in engagement with the guides 53. By thisarrangement the same effect may be obtained as with the arrangementshown in Fig. 15.

In the claims the term ball7 is intended to include all bodies ofrotation of the order of balls whether they are spherical or oval incross-section or of other similar forms.

I claim 1. Apparatus for forming balls, comprising two dies mounted forsliding movement over one another and having co-operating ball-forminggrooves, the grooves having progressively Varying cross-sectionalconfigurations and varying depths, the greatest depth being providedintermediate the ends of the grooves and being in excess of the radiusof the ball to be formed.

2. Apparatus for forming balls, comprising two dies mounted for slidingmovement over one another and having cooperating ball-forming grooves,the grooves having portions substantially V-shaped in cross-sectionco-operating intermediate the ends of the stroke and portionsprogressively Changing from V-shape to semi-circular shape, said lastmentioned portions cooperating durino the final part of the rollingstroke.

3. pparatus according to claim 2 in which the depth of the V-shapedportions is greater than that of the semi-circular portions.

In testimony whereof, I aHiX my signature.

FRANK EARL MARCY.

